Skip to main content

Protection and Provision

             The king said to me, “What is it you want?”

Then I prayed to the God of heaven, and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so that I can rebuild it.”

Then the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, “How long will your journey take, and when will you get back?” It pleased the king to send me; so I set a time.

 I also said to him, “If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the royal park, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?” And because the gracious hand of my God was on me, the king granted my requests. So I went to the governors of Trans-Euphrates and gave them the king’s letters. The king had also sent army officers and cavalry with me. (Nehemiah 2:4-9) 

Earlier, we established that Nehemiah was working within God’s priorities and based on His promises. Yesterday was about Nehemiah’s planning. Today is about Nehemiah’s bold planning. When the time came, he not only asked the king for permission to go, but he asked for protection and abundant provision. And the king went above and beyond that by sending army officers and soldiers with him.

The first thing this suggests to me about Nehemiah’s planning is that it was thorough. He had considered what he would need: permission, protection, and provision, and he had put his finger not only on the people whose cooperation he would need, but the means of obtaining that cooperation.

I can’t help thinking that if I had been in his shoes, I would not have planned it out half so well. I would have thought I had to make do with what I could come up with myself. Maybe there would be timber and people in Jerusalem. At least, I would think I needed to examine the situation myself to figure out what would be needed. After all, the king’s generosity should not be abused.

But Nehemiah knew how great a God and how great a king he served. He didn’t see it as insulting or imposing on God or the king to ask for big things. It was insulting for him to not ask for big things. Why ask God or the king at all, if you’re only going to ask for something that your neighbor could do at least as well?

There are two reasons why I haven’t mentioned what my goals for 2022 are. One is because I don’t want this to be about me and mine. The other is that I’m still trying to discern what they should be. At the moment, I have 1.5 official goals, though some others are obvious. The first, as I discuss it with God is, “A New View of You.” The other will happen if the first happens – a new view of me. There are others that pertain to writing and such that will undoubtedly get set, but to paraphrase one of my characters, this one is “the war that must be won, if all else is lost to win it.”

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Way, The Truth, and The Life

              Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me . (John 14:6)           If “I am the gate of the sheep…I am the good shepherd” from chapter 10 is a double whammy, this verse is a triple whammy. And its first victim is the notion that any other so-called god was acceptable or the same as Jesus. He, and He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to get to the Father. There is no other Savior, or Redeemer, according to Jesus. Now, to be fair, other religions will claim that their religion or god(s) are the only way. That is the nature of gods and of religions. If this and that are equally good and agree on what’s necessary, then this and that are the same thing, so there’s no need to from the other to one. If that’s the case, then why speak against the other or promote the one? There’s a song I’ve been listening to i...
Post a Comment
Read more